March 30, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Something fishy is going on in New Bedford (excuse the terrible pun).

On March 26, the final day for sectors to confirm their rosters and membership for the 2018 fishing season, NOAA got letters from sector VII saying that no vessels will remain in Sector VII who were there last year, and that 16 of these vessels are joining sector VIII.

Then they were told that 55 vessels from sector IX are joining sector VII, including the 4 vessels owned by Carlos Rafael that have been judged subject to forfeiture.

Meanwhile, a separate letter from sector IX said that only three vessels would remain in that sector, that it would operate solely as a lease sector and those vessels would not fish.

What is going on here?

First, all three sectors VII,VIII, and IX are New Bedford groundfish sectors approved under the Northeast Groundfish management plan.

Each year, these sectors have to submit operation plans to NOAA, including the roster of vessels and the rules under which the vessels in the sector will fish.

After the guilty plea by Carlos Rafael, and the admission last fall by sector IX that its vessels, primarily associated with Rafael, had engaged in overfishing, NOAA suspended the operating permit for that sector.  That meant no vessels in that sector could continue to fish.

Since the fall negotiations have been going on between NOAA and Sector IX over how Sector IX might return to operations.  The primary obstacle is that NOAA has required the Sector to account for its overfishing, and to calculate how much fish must be deducted from its current allotments in order to pay back fish illegally harvested.

Secondly, NOAA has insisted on Sector IX developing a monitoring and catch reporting plan that would prevent illegal fishing.

By March, neither side had reached an agreement, and the issue of Sector IX was going to be a prominent part of the New England Fishery Management Council Meeting next week.

NOAA was blindsided by the switcheroo.

Much of what is going on in New Bedford is with the same actors.  Three Board Members from Sector IX would join the Board of Sector VII.  Meanwhile, the manager of Sector IX, Stephanie Rafael-DeMello, has said she would be moving to fleet operations management for Rafael’s vessels, instead of continuing full time as the manager of Sector IX.

One interpretation of this switch is that Sector IX is being effectively disbanded.

However, not all the promises made by Sector IX to NOAA are being carried over as the vessels move to sector VII.

One point mentioned in NOAA’s letter to the council is that Sector VII has requested that vessels owned by Carlos Rafael remain inactive in the fishery, although with rights to lease their quotas to other sectors or intra-sector, unless they are sold to another party.

But the 55 vessels transferring to Sector VII, including all those currently listed as inactive, could become operational within Sector VII with no changes to existing ownership.

Under NOAA rules, if a sector disbands after having overfished, the overfishing penalty is allocated among the vessels that had previously been in the sector, and deducted from their new sector allocation.

As Sector IX was unable to provide information about the overages of specific vessels, the time and cost of allocating the overages to the remaining vessels transferring out of the sector may be substantial.

The three inactive vessels remaining in Sector IX appear to be willing to shoulder the penalty, once it is agreed upon, and to pay it by having the overages deducted from the amount of their quotas that are leased. The move appears to be an attempt to get the other Sector IX vessels out from under the obligation to payback the sector overages.

All of this will be discussed at the council meeting, which promises to be interesting.

The driving factor here is that the New Bedford Auction, owned by the Canastra Brothers, needs to get some volume of groundfish back.  This has been greatly reduced by the suspension of sector IX.  Rafael vessels represented the largest source of groundfish for the private New Bedford auction.

The Canastras first tried to buy Rafael’s boats.  This did not go anywhere, as NOAA needs to give its approval.  Then they tried to set up a way to satisfy NOAA on Sector IX overages without providing a detailed accounting.  This was not accepted either.

Now they have participated in a wholesale abandonment of Sector IX and moved vessels to Sector VII, with the aim of first, hoping the vessels will be allowed to fish, or that in this situation inactive vessels can become active though still owned by their original Rafael connected owners.

Secondly, they may be hoping to clear the way for a sale of these vessels who are now potentially operating in a less tainted sector.

There has been a continuing political effort in New Bedford to try and keep the groundfish volumes that had been part of Rafael’s fishing operations within the port.

All of this maneuvering avoids the basic question before NOAA and the Council, which is whether the permits for the vessels that are now suspended will simply be allocated to New Bedford, or will they be subject to distribution to the rest of the New England groundfish fishery that was harmed by the rampant overfishing taking place in New Bedford.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.